BeliEVAh
by 00zau
Summary: During the fight with the Third Angel, Simon, Kamina and Yoko appear in Lagann. How will these characters effect each-other, and how will they, and the changes the bring to each-other, effect the outcomes of their stories?
1. Meet

READ THE DISCLAIMER: I don't own either of the shows this is based on.

…

A young man walked down a forest trail. As he did, he saw a glint up ahead on the ground. As he approached it, he saw that it was a small, flat metal case. Reaching it, be opened it to find a peculiar pair of sunglasses inside.

The sunglasses had oddly shaped lenses, with each lens resembling a teardrop with the point facing away from the nosepiece of the shades, but with the tips of the teardrops bending down. Even more unusual was the lenses themselves; one seemed white while the other was black, and as he turned them in his hand, they seemed to switch back and forth, though never were both black or both white at the same time. Despite this, when he put them on, he could see through them without issue. He slipped the glasses back into the case, and into his breast pocket, and was about to continue when his cell-phone rang.

"Hello," he said, holding the phone up to his ear.

"Hey, Shinji," the voice on the other end said, "please come back to the house, we just got a letter from your father."

"M-My father?!" Shinji asked hesitantly.

…

Shinji Ikari stepped off the empty train into the equally empty train terminal. Looking around, he wished that he had some way to contact whoever it was that was supposed to pick him up. After seeing no one for several minutes, he walked out to the street. Still not seeing anyone, he pulled a picture of a young woman out of his pocket. In addition to a cutesy 'Call Me' and a smiley face, a number was written in the margin. Pulling his cell phone out of his pocket, he was about to call it when he heard several rapidly approaching sounds in the distance.

First, a few VTOLs screamed by in reverse, in complete disregard for the danger of hitting anything behind them. They were firing at something behind them, though Shinji's view of it was blocked by a building. Then, their target came into view; a massive, lumbering humanoid figure. It was nearly twenty stories tall, mostly off-black with a number of white, bone-like plates or markings on the surface of the body. Instead of a head, there was a bone mask, reminiscent of a plague doctor's, attached about where the neck would be on a human, if a human were the height of an office building.

Seeming to finally grow tired of the harmless barrage of auto-cannon and rocket fire, the figure casually swatted one of the VTOLs from the sky with the ease of a man shooing a fly. The VTOL crashed into the ground and exploded near the boy, who screamed and dropped to the ground for what meager cover it would provide. Almost at the same time, a blue coupe came screeching around a corner. Speeding towards him, just before it was sure to hit him, the driver jerked the car to the right, sliding it to a halt only a few yards from his feet. The driver flung open the passenger door, revealing the woman in the picture Shinji held.

"Come with me if you want to live," she intoned, obviously struggling to maintain a straight face.

Glad to see any way out, Shinji threw his bag into the backseat and ducked into the passenger seat. Closing the door, he reached for the seatbelt, and barely had time to put it on before the woman took the car through a J-turn away from the monster, momentarily drowning out the sound of the fight with the squealing of the tires. As they accelerated away, a whiff of burnt rubber wafted into the passenger compartment.

Once they were a good distance from the creature, the woman turned to him, peeking over her sunglasses, and introduced herself, "You must be Shinj Ikari, right? Misato Katsuragi, pleased ta meetcha."

_Buh. Trying to write up the parts from the pre-crossover canon bits is really a drag (and yes, I know I'm not following the events strictly, and I'm doing so intentionally). Skipping to the part where things actually go off the rails of the shows. Initial crossover occurs during the fight with Sachiel in NGE, and right after the fight with the first Ganmen in TTGL (as they fall back to earth after flying high). I will come back and finish writing the preceding events eventually, since there isn't much, and having the whole story in one place will be nice (especially for those who haven't memorized the first episodes), I just don't feel like writing them up just now. _

Unit 01 rocketed to the surface, accelerating the whole way, before it screamed to a halt as it reached the surface, temporarily drowning out the screams of the terrified pilot. Despite the braking, the robot still slammed into the end of the track at the end of its run, shaking the ground.

Misato ordered the last locks released on the massive humanoid, then shouted "Evangelion Unit 01, move out!"

Nothing happened. After a few moments of awkward silence, Misato spoke again; "Alright, Shinji, let's just focus on moving the Eva first, m'kay?"

"How?"

"It's just like controlling your own body; you just have to focus more on it. Just put one foot in front of the other," Ritsuko cut in.

Shinji focused on moving the right leg forward, trying to ignore the Angel nearby. He was amazed when the massive leg actually began to move. Unfortunately, he was so amazed that he didn't believe it was actually happening. The leg stopped moving just as the Eva began to shift its weight to fall on the leg, causing the Eva to fall flat on its face.

Before Shinji could try to right the massive construct, the Angel reached down and grabbed the Eva by the head. Casually lifting the robot into the air with one hand, the Angel grabbed the Evas left arm and pulled, trying to tear the Eva apart. The Angel's muscles bulged several times their original size, aiding its efforts. Shinji screamed in pain, grasping his left arm with his right as the Eva's pain fed back, preventing him from making any move to defend. The bridge crew shouted encouragements, but he couldn't break through the pain to hear what they were saying.

With a snap like a felled tree, the Eva's wrist broke, redoubling Shinji's pain. The Angel released his arm, then began slamming the Eva's head with some part of its arm. The pain in his arm was forgotten next to the newer, greater pain in his head as he grasped his head with both hands. After several strikes, the Eva was sent flying back into a building, trailing a severed power cord which had snapped under the tension.

Shinji couldn't move. He could barely even think. His mind just cried for someone, anyone, to save him.

…

_Oh, the cliffhangers. Episode one write-up of TTGL goes here._

Simon, Kamina and Yoko all screamed as Lagann fell to the earth. Just before they hit the ground, they saw a flash of light before their eyes.

…

Suddenly, a light seemed to appear for a moment just above Shinji's heart. Alarms on the bridge went off as an unidentified object appeared several hundred feet in the air. As it fell, cameras focused on it, revealing it to be a small humanoid mechanical figure, painted red. It fell straight toward the Angel and sprouted a drill, seemingly from nowhere, just before it reached the monster. Amazingly, the tiny robot managed to accomplish what almost nothing in humanities arsenals had and penetrated the arm of the Angel, drawing a scream of rage that by all rights should have rent concrete and steel as easily as it rent the air.

The enraged Angel batted the robot away with its good arm, but the pause gave the semi-conscious Shinji enough time to stand up. Barely aware of what he was doing, or how he was managing to run when he couldn't even walk before, he made the Eva charge at its opponent. A yellow hexagonal barrier sprung into existence between the combatants. Stymied, the Eva howled, the locks on its jaw shattering.

The bridge crew panicked, shouting something about the Eva going berserk, but Shinji couldn't hear them. The Eva reached out, its hands slowly penetrating the field, moving like a spoon through molasses. Once both hands were through the center of the field, the construct began to inexorably pull them apart. Somehow, the robot managed to rip through the intangible field, reaching the creature behind it. Tackling the Angel, the Eva began pounding on the ruby core in its chest with its massive fists, shaking the ground beneath them with the savage blows. After several blows, cracks ran through the sphere. In an instant, the Angel seemed to liquefy, its entire mass flowing up and around the Eva before the Angel. For a moment, it seemed as though the Angel would absorb the Evangelion, but then the creature rapidly expanded to several times its original size, before exploding in a blast of similar mightto the N2 mine dropped on it earlier.

As soon as the Angel was gone, the Evangelion, which appeared mostly unharmed, fell over backwards with a crash, both the pilot and the internal batteries exhausted.

"Begin recovery of the Eva and start preliminary assessments for repairs cost and timetable," Misato ordered, "and get that unidentified object so we can try and figure out what it is, how it got here, and how it managed to hurt an Angel."

…

Shinji was unconscious when they pulled the entry plug out of Unit 01, but he regained consciousness within minutes; since there were no physical injuries, it was decided that he didn't need to go to the hospital. Thus, he tagged along with Misato to the location of the object which had helped save his life.

The object could be clearly seen, though it was half embedded in the side of a building. It appeared to be a small humanoid robot with a face on its chest instead of having a head.

As Misato, Shinji and a group of NERV security officers approached, they heard the sound of crying. Rushing in, they found a trio of teenagers trying to pull the robot off the legs of a small girl who must have been in the building when the robot crashed into it.

"What are you kids doing out of a shelter?!" Misato cried.

"We don't know how we got here! We don't even know where we are!" the youngest looking of the teens shouted back, obviously distraught.

"Outta the way!" Misato ordered frantically, as several of the NERV officers take the trio's places, though the taller of the two boys refused to budge. The other two teens moved, allowing two officers to take their places, and the taller boy and two officers together managed to heave the robot over, while Misato paged for an ambulance. As they did, she saw that the top of the robot was open, revealing a cockpit.

The ambulance arrived in a squall of tire smoke, and both Shinji and Misato noticed the other teens staring as the girl was efficiently loaded into the ambulance, which peeled away almost as quickly as it had arrived.

As soon as the ambulance was out of sight, Misato whirled on the trio of unknowns, finally having time to appraise them. Taking note of their outlandish outfits, she took a second glance at the cockpit revealed when the machine was shifted. As she examined them, they introduced themselves somewhat sheepishly.

"You three were in that robot, weren't you?" Misato stated, hardly bothering to make it a question.

The three chorused assents. Misato continued her impromptu interrogation, "Since you don't know where you are or how you got here, can you tell me where you're _from_?"

The three spilled, alternating as one had more experience with a specific part of the story. Several times, Yoko interrupted to clarify something that Kamina exaggerated; Simon stammered out several self-deprecating refusals of Kamina's praise, while Kamina would interject over both of their explanations to add how epic their contributions had been. Misato could hardly believe the story, but after the events she had seen that day, it was a little easier to believe. Shinji, still a little out of it after his ordeal with the angel, stared blankly.

"The real question is, how do we get back?" was Yoko's first question after they finished their story, "my village it probably missing me right now, and so is Jiha village with Simon and Kamina" to which Kamina snorted.

Simon chipped in, saying "Maybe we need to be back in Lagann to go back, sorta need to be in the same place we came in to leave?"

Kamina slapped Simon on the back, nearly bowling him over, "That sounds like a plan!"

The three squeezed into the open cockpit of the mecha, which was obviously too small for 3 young adults. In fact, it looked like they shouldn't have been able to fit at all.

"Hey! Watch where you put your hands, buddy."

"Like I'd want to touch you anyway, pit-chick."

Once they got themselves situated, Simon pulled out his drill, and inserted it into the hole in the middle of the console. Concentrating, he turned the key… and got nothing. Lagann did not respond in any way to its pilot.

Disappointed, the teens climbed back out of the mecha. Simon informed Misato, "it won't activate for some reason."

Misato nodded, before whipping out her cellphone and calling a number on speed-dial, "Hey, Ritz, I need a favor…"

After describing the situation, she asked, "Can you get me that open apartment next door to mine? I want to have all four of these kids stay with me, but I don't have enough room in my suite alone, so I figure I'll have the boys stay next door while Yoko, the girl, stays with me. Sound good?"

Ritsuko was not pleased. "We can't have three unknown civilians who appeared out of nowhere living with the _Third Child_," she exclaimed, "we know nothing about them. They could be dangerous."

Misato was insistent, "They're just kids. I think it might be useful for Shinji to have some kids his age around anyway. And with them staying with me, Shinji's security detail and I can keep an eye on them. It'll only be temporary, since we're going to try and send them home, anyway. Also, you can take a look at their co-ol little robot, try and figure out how it ticks, get your hands greasy, all that fun stuff," she finished in a sing-song.

Whether because Misato had hit the mark with the opportunity to play with another robot, or because she was tired of arguing, Ritsuko agreed to Misato's proposal. Details were hashed out, and in short order a NERV officer handed over a packet to her. Turning back to the teens, Misato explained, "Now that's taken care of. Y'all will be staying with me for now. You three," she said, indicating the boys, "will share the apartment next to mine for now, while Yoko will stay with me. Since your 'Lagann' won't turn on, my friends here are going to haul it off and try to figure out how to make it work again. We'll have you on your way home in no time."

The five hitched a ride back to the apartment complex in a NERV van. On the way there, Kamina turned to Shinji, "so, you're the pilot of that purple robot back there, eh?"

Shinji gave a meek, "y-yeah, I guess."

"Bad. Ass." Kamina continued, "How'd you score a ride like that?"

As Shinji explained the recent events to the other three teens, Kamina took note of how similar Shinji's demeanor was to Simon's. _He's just like Simon. I bet I can help him out_ Kamina thought to himself. Kamina slammed his hand down on Shinji's shoulder, causing him to jump a little.

"You should join Team Gurren!" Kamina stated, drawing some irksome looks from the adults in the front of the van for his loudness.

"What's that?" Shinji asked.

"What! You haven't heard of us? The reputation of Team Gurren echoes far and wide! Though I guess it can't be helped, since you're from a different world or whatever."

"Who all's in this team then?" Shinji asked.

"J-just me, Kamina, and Boota" Simon started.

"And now you!" Kamina cut in, pointing at Shinji.

"But I didn't-" Shinji tried to deny, "and who is Boota?"

Kamina jerked a thumb at Yoko, then Shinji tried not to stare as her chest began to move without any apparent reason. Then, a small, furry blob popped out from her cleavage.

Simon, also trying not to stare, gave a stunned, "how could you tell where…" as Kamina gave a knowing grin, earning a glare from Yoko.

Boota quickly scurried across the van and up Simon's arm, to sit on his shoulder. Interruption over, Kamina turned back to Shinji, "Great! Welcome to Team Gurren," continuing to ignore Shinji's attempt to protest that he hadn't actually _agreed_ to join.

The van finally arrived at the apartment complex, and the five got out. Climbing the exterior staircase, Kamina stared curiously at the floor signs until Misato announced "Here's our floor."

Kamina promptly asked, "How can you tell? They all look the same."

Misato pointed at the sign, "Read the sign. I know what floor my room is on."

Once again, Kamina looked at the sign, turning his head in confusion. "You can't read, can you?" Misato asked, exasperated.

A "Read?" from Kamina answered her question. Yoko face-palmed.

Misato took note of Yoko's reaction, and so turned to Simon, asking "What about you?"

Simon replied "N-no."

Misato continued, "Well, I guess we can start taking care of that in the morning. For now, these are our suites. This one is mine, which Yoko will be sharing with me," she said, stopping at a door, "and the next one down is y'all's. Here's the key-card," she finished, fishing said card out of her pocket, "and here's a couple flashlights, since the power is out after the attack."

The three boys continued along. When they reached the door Kamina stopped, faced the door, and stared at it for a few seconds. He then straightened, lifted his right foot, and leaned into a slam that put most of his weight through that foot into the door just beside the handle. Unfortunately for him, the door, steel in a concrete frame, refused to budge, leaving him nursing a stinging foot.

"What was that for?" asked Shinji, as he stepped past Kamina and swiped the key reader, entering the apartment.

"Well, I saw that thing in the archway…"

"A door," supplied Shinji.

"Yeah, I saw the door, and I just knew I was supposed to kick it like that. Must be one tough door."

"Well, that usually only happens in movies," Shinji said, then continued, "They're stories that you watch on a screen," at Simon and Kamina's quizzical looks. As the three entered the apartment, Shinji flipped the lights on, and they all went through and looked at the rooms. There were three rooms, two of which were the same size, and one slightly larger. Kamina stood in front of the largest.

"Let's use this one," he announced.

"There are three rooms," Shinji said, "one for each of us."

"Oh, we're the only ones here! I guess there's plenty of space up on the surface. In that case, Simon can have this one, and I'll take the one by the door," Kamina replied without a second thought.

"Shouldn't you have the larger one, since you're the oldest?" Shinji said.

"Yeah, but Simon and you are the heroes today, so one of you should have it," Kamina explained.

"But I didn't really _do_ anything" Shinji and Simon said at the same time.

Kamina grinned, "Bros, don't try to belittle what you've both done today! This is only the beginning, and I know you'll both do more before it's over."

Shinji turned to Simon, "Is he always like this?"

Simon replied, "Yeah, bro is so cool. I wish I could be like him, but I can't help but be scared, you know? Kamina just isn't scared, ever."

Shiji thought for a moment, then said, "I feel the same way sometimes. I keep telling myself 'I mustn't run away,' but I still want to, but I wish I could just _not_ run away."

Exhausted after a long day, the three went to bed, knowing that this was only the end of the beginning.

…

Gendo Ikari sat at the end of a long, black table in an equally black room, hands clasped in front of his mouth. Slowly, the room began to light up as several hologram projectors activated, revealing that the room was even decorated, for lack of a better term, in black. The designers had obviously built the room with intimidation in mind, though who it was meant to intimidate, and who was meant to do the intimidating remained to be seen. The holograms displayed the countenances of five elderly men, and a number of black obelisks lit up as well, representing men wishing to keep their identities as a card to be played at a later date, or not at all.

The man at the other head of the table, equipped with several prosthetics, including a visor across his eyes, could be identified as the leader of the other men by his mere posture. He and Gendo stared impassively at each other across the table. The two men sat silently for several minutes, a motionless struggle for dominance playing in the air between them. Who would be the first to speak, thus ceding control of the conversation to the other?

Finally, the visored man spoke. "I tire of this waiting. I have other matters to attend to," he began, attempting to salvage some control, despite having been the first to talk, "Gendo Ikari, you have failed us. Things in Tokyo-3 are not going according to _plan_. Reports indicate a trio of children, who seemed to appear from _another world_, interrupted the fight with the Third Angel, and are now living with the Third Child. How have you let this occur?"

Smirking behind his hands, Gendo responded, "This is only a minor setback. Ritsuko Akagi and more of our finest engineers and scientists are as we speak working on returning these children from whence they came."

Another of the men spoke up, "Why not simply eliminate them?"

"Misato Katsuragi was on the scene at the time, and took them into her care before we could intervene. At this time, eliminating the newcomers would arouse suspicion and make her more difficult to manipulate. Rest assured, I will get rid of them if I have to, but at this time it serves our goals better not to."

The leader spoke again, "Very well. Dismissed."

One by one, the monoliths fell silent, and the four other holograms dissipated, leaving only Gendo and the cybernetically enhanced man.

"Gendo Ikari."

"Lorenz Kihl," Gendo responded with the same tone.

"I do not trust you. SEELE will be paying attention most closely now that events are proceeding."

"I expect nothing less." With that, Gendo stood from his chair and without any further acknowledgement of his nominal superior, turned and strode briskly from the room.

…

Author's Note: I'm not really happy with this yet, but I'm not sure what to do to make it better just yet. Expect a re-write once I get a better feel for writing (meaning a re-write beyond just adding in the parts I've skipped). Trying to write Kamina is a challenge, since I'm not planning on this becoming "the Kamina Show" but I still want him to be somewhat hammy.

I fully realize that the pre-crossover part (or what little I've written of it) is not word-for-word the same as the canon, and it's not going to be. I'm going to modernize a little, such as Shinji having a cell-phone from the get-go (thus no pay-phone), and he will have a MP3 player instead of an SDAT (inb4 shitstorm). Also, this lets me do the dialogue without watching the first episodes of both shows ad nausiem to get the dialogue "right," while letting me keep the initial scenes more in line with the original scenes written later.

Edit the First: It was pointed out to me that I was doing too much telling and not enough showing, as well as having some rather glaring grammar issues. It was also pointed out that NERV and SEELE were rather accepting of 3 inter-dimensional travelers interrupting their plans for world domination/tanging/whatever. Thus, I've tried to improve the prose, added a couple scenes, and generally tried to clean up. Thanks for the feedback, guys!


	2. Bond

READ THE DISCLAIMER: I don't own either of the shows this is based on.

…

The next day, the Simon and Shinji awoke to a loud rumbling sound. Tumbling out the door to his room, Shinji discovered that Kamina, or more precisely his stomach, was the source of the sound.

"Hungry," Kamina moaned, barely moving from where he lay on the floor, "there's no food here."

"Really? I guess we'll have to go over to Misato's…" Shinji trailed off.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go-o," Kamina urged, grabbing Shinji and a groggy Simon (who had just blearily staggered out of his own room) and dragged them out the front door. Stopping in front of Misato's apartment, Kamina stared at the door for a few seconds. He lifted his foot, stopped, put it back down again and tried turning the handle. When that failed to open the door, Shinji stepped in and knocked hesitantly on the door.

Misato quickly opened the door, "Come on in. I'm guessing you want food?"

"How could you tell?" Simon asked, at the same time that Kamina exclaimed, "Of course!"

"First off, you're all teenage boys. Second off, I'm pretty sure that tummy rumble registered on the Richter Scale. Once Yoko's done, we can all eat."

Simon asked, "Where is Yoko, anyway?"

Misato jerked a thumb towards a door, behind which running water could be heard, "Shower; she just got in, so it'll probably be a few minutes."

Just then, there was a yell from inside the bathroom. The door was flung open, revealing the steam-filled interior of the bathroom, and a small black and white bird was flung unceremoniously into the kitchen, skidding several feet on the tiled floor before coming to a stop against the counter with a _thump_.

"Oh, that's where Pen-Pen got off to," Misato observed mildly, as the penguin got up and attempted to maintain some dignity as it waddled over to a second fridge and climbed in.

"This place just gets weirder by the minute. I like it!" said Kamina, "Now what was that you said about some grub?"

"Well, I guess we can go ahead and start cooking, that way it'll be done by the time Yoko is out of the shower."

A few minutes later, Shinji commented, "Does this really count as cooking? You're just microwaving a bunch of instant meals."

"Oh, hush. I'd like to see you do better," retorted Misato.

"Who cares how it's made; it smells great!" came from Kamina, as he watched the plastic dishes slowly rotated on the microwaves turntable. The smells wafted teasingly out each time Misato opened the door to stir or switch meals.

Just as they were putting the plastic trays onto the table, the bathroom door opened again. Yoko walked out carefully, mindful to keep the towel wrapped around her chest in place. Seeing the three boys, she started to turn and retreat, but stopped and continued forward after she smelled the food on the table. Sidling up to the table, she sat down and grabbed a meal. Pulling her damp hair back over her shoulder, she managed to both preen slightly and look indignant as the boys tried in vain not to stare.

The group dug into the meals with varying levels of gusto. Simon and Kamina seemingly inhaled theirs, with Kamina exclaiming between mouthfuls (and often during them as well) as to the flavor of the food. Yoko was only slightly less enthusiastic, obviously impressed with the food as well, but with better manners. Misato, after adding a copious amount of chili sauce, also scarfed her food down. Shinji was left the only one not happy with the food, picking at it some before slowly choking it down with several glasses of water.

Misato, noticing Shinji's displeasure, said, "What's so bad about instant food? I live off this stuff."

Shinji responded "I-it's just not as good as real food. If there was anything but beer and junk food here, maybe I could make something."

"Alright then, we can buy some groceries while we're out today."

"What else are we going out for?" Shinji asked.

"Clothes! These three can't go out dressed like this all the time, and they need more than one set of clothes anyway. You could probably use some more clothes as well, judging by the amount of stuff you brought."

"Hey, what's wrong with our clothes!?" Kamina asked indignantly.

"Well, none of you have shirts, for starters."

"And what's wrong with that? It's not like its cold, and real men don't need all those heavy clothes!"

"Well, we're trying to keep a low profile, and having y'all running around in those get-ups isn't exactly going to do that."

"Who cares about that? We don't need to stay hidden. That's like running away, and Team Gurren never retreats!"

"Whatever. You can stay inside the apartment until we figure out how to send y'all home, then."

"Hey, hey, hey, hey! I ain't spending that much time cooped up around here. Geeze, even surface chicks are pushy."

Simon finally said something, speaking softly to Kamina, "Bro, maybe we should actually listen to her for once. We probably can't get much food if we can't leave. And did you see what everyone was wearing last night? I bet we could find something cool to wear."

Kamina sighed, "Oh all right. You win this time. Now, since we're done eating, let's get a move on it!"

"Hey, some of us _aren't_ done eating yet, you bottomless pit," Yoko pointed out indignantly.

Misato cut off Kamina as he started to retort, "Yoko's right, we all need to finish eating before we leave. And anyway, at least for now you three need to borrow some shirts so we can go out in public. Simon can borrow one of Shinji's, (oh by the way, your luggage has arrived, Shinji), Yoko can borrow one of mine, and I've got a couple shirts lying around that I think will fit you, Kamina."

…

A few minutes later, Yoko and Misato came out of Misato's room. Yoko was wearing a plain black t-shirt that was obviously too large for her, making it quite baggy.

Kamina was unimpressed. "Take away the bare midriff, and you don't have anything left, do yah?"

Yoko sputtered indignantly in response, followed by Misato pointing out, "You aren't much to look at in that baggy shirt either, Kamina." And indeed, the way the shirt hung loosely on his frame hid the toned body underneath, making him appear merely scrawny.

"That's why I don't need a shirt!" Kamina exclaimed.

"Not this again," Shinji complained in the background, "Let's just get this over with already."

Misato and Simon chorused agreement. The party was about to leave when Kamina spoke again, "Hey! Were'd my sword get off to?"

Yoko replied, "We left your sword and my gun in Lagann last night, so it's probably wherever they took Lagann."

"Correct. We'll swing by and pick them up later today. We need to go by HQ anyway to get Shinji fitted for a plug-suit," Misato added, "not that you really ought to be carrying those around in public."

The group finally got moving, forestalling another argument. Misato led them to the elevators since the power was back up. Kamina barely managed to hide his surprise when the 'room' started moving after they got in. Reaching the ground floor, they walked out to be confronted by a large black SUV. Misato pulled a set of keys out of her pocket, "I'd like to keep using my Renault, but it's in the shop, and it can't really seat five anyway, so I got NERV to get us a larger car."

They piled into the car, Kamina taking the passenger seat, Yoko and Simon taking the middle, and Shinji volunteering to the back seat. As they drove off, Kamina closely observed Misato's driving. "Hey, you should let me take a turn driving on the way back."

"Sorry kiddo, you've got to have a license first. And you have to learn how before you can get one. Actually, since you're older than the other two, we might be able to arrange that if you're around here long enough. That work?"

"I guess."

Meanwhile, in the back, Shinji noticed Simon staring out the windows, head darting around to take it all in. "It's a beautiful day isn't it?"

Simon replied, "I've never seen a day before. We were only on the surface for a minute before we ended up here, and it was night here. But yeah, the surface looks amazing! All these huge buildings! There must be thousands of people here. All of Giha village could probably fit in _one_ of those big tall boxy ones."

Shinji supplied, "Those are called sky-scrapers. And this isn't even the only city in the world. There are around three billion people in the world."

Kamina, listening in, cut in, "Sky-scrapers, you say? That sounds pretty badass. Once we get home and defeat the Gunmen, we should build cities just like this one. Except when we do it, we'll make them even bigger, so that they will _pierce_ the sky!"

"Yeah, bro, I hope our world can be as great as this one someday."

Kamina stated, "It will be, and we'll be the ones to put it there!"

Shinji spoke to Simon again, "You know, our world isn't that great right now either. Half the people died 15 years ago, and the environment is in pretty bad shape as well."

Simon replied, "If you say so. It's still a lot better than ours."

Yoko piped up, "Yeah, there really isn't much to see on the surface, it's all a big desert from what I've seen."

"Here we are!" Misato announced, pulling into the parking lot of a store.

"Goodwill?" Shinji asked, reading the sign above the building.

"What's that?" asked Yoko.

"'S the name the store. They sell used clothes," Shinji replied.

"And I'm taking y'all here because I can't afford new clothes for all of you, before you ask," Misato added.

After parking the car, they trooped into the store. Misato sent the boys off to one side, taking Yoko with her to the girls' clothing section.

"You know, you can still get the boy's attention without having to give it all away with that bikini top," Misato advised, "Let me help you pick some good stuff out."

…

The three young men looked through the aisles of the store, trying to find clothes in their sizes. Kamina passed over many ordinary shirts, occasionally complaining about how boring all the clothes were, before stopping short. "Perfect."

He pulled a shirt off of the hanger. It was a short sleeve, button up shirt, medium blue with loud red, orange and yellow print on it. After stripping the t-shirt he was wearing off, he flung the new shirt over his back, sticking his arms through the sleeves on the way. Leaving it unbuttoned, he turned to the other two, "Awesome, right?"

"Umm, I think the point of getting shirts was to _cover_ our chests, bro," Simon noted.

"If you wear another shirt underneath it it'd be alright, wouldn't it? It looks pretty cool," Shinji added.

"Aight. Now let's get something better on you two," Kamina said, after grabbing a more fitting T-shirt off a rack and putting it on under the other shirt

"But my clothes are fiiinnneee," Shinji moaned as Kamina dragged them both back into the aisles.

"Here we go," Kamina exclaimed, pulling a jacket down after a short time searching. It almost seemed to be made out of grey panels, with darker grey underneath connecting the segments, such as at the shoulders, at the elbows, between the upper and lower halves of the torso. A thick metal zipper closed the front. He threw it to Shinji, who put it on over his white shirt.

"Great. Now, if only you had some shades to go with it…"

"Umm…a-actually I do have a pair I found a couple days ago," Shinji said, pulling the metallic case out of his breast pocket. Pulling the odd spectacles from the case, he put them on, then turned to look in a mirror.

"Dayum, bro, that looks suits you. You can get away with those white shirts as long as you get this to go with them."

"Yeah, Shinji, that looks pretty cool," Simon added.

"I guess I'll get it then," Shinji said, "but what about you, Simon? You still need to get some shirts, and both of you ought to get some more normal pants."

"See anything you like, Simon?" Kamina asked as they wandered down the aisles.

"N-not yet."

"Hey, do you like this?" Shinji asked, snagging a blue jacket with red trim off the wall and showing it to the others.

"Ho-oo, that's perfect for you, Simon," Kamina burst, "I think blue and red are your colors."

Simon tried the jacket on, finding it a fine fit. Kamina reached out and tugged Simons goggled down around his neck instead of on top of his head, then declared it perfect again.

After picking up a couple more shirts to wear under Simon's jacket and Kamina's Hawaiian shirt, as well as some new pants (mostly cargo pants), Kamina declared, "Alright! We're done, let's go see what's taking the girls so long."

They walked over to the other side of the store, through an aisle, turned the corner, and stopped dead in their tracks.

"See, Yoko, I told you this one was good," Misato said, winking before turned back to the boys, "y'all trying to catch flies?"

The three managed to scrape their jaws off the floor, but found it hard to take their eyes off of Yoko. She was wearing a long-sleeved white shirt, buttoned down from below her neck to just below her ribs, and the shirt clung tightly to her chest. As she moved, her stomach could still be glimpsed occasionally. She also wore a narrow black skirt that ended just above the knees. Combined with her boots and the shoulder loops on the shirt, and a soft white hat with a hard black brim, it gave a somewhat martial air.

"You were right, Misato. But it's still impractical. I can't move in this!" Yoko said.

"And that's what the other outfits are for. Come on, let's get moving before the drool floods the store."

Turning to the boys, Misato examined their choices before smirking, sighing and turning toward the front of the store, "Whatever. I ain't gonna tell y'all how to dress. Let's go."

They made their way to the front of the store, checked out, and left. Misato drove towards NERV HQ, while pointing out a few local landmarks. They reached the entrance to the Geofront and drove in.

"Aw man, we're going underground again? La-ame," Kamina complained.

"Oh, hush. I think you'll find this a lot more impressive than a mere underground village. And anyway, we need a protected base just like your villages needed to be protected," Misato retorted.

After a short wait, a car-train arrived, and Misato idled forward onto it before it continued down into the dark tunnel. After a short while, they broke out into a near-day level of light. The three foreigners stared at the huge cavern, filled with sunlight, with plants and trees growing at the bottom. "Welcome to the NERV Geofront." Misato grinned. "I told you it was better than what you're used to underground."

As they continued down, even Shinji took some more time to look around in wonder again, as he'd been somewhat preoccupied the only other time he'd been down there. Despite being under-ground, the huge volume of the cavern was enough that faint clouds formed in places. Combined with the large distance, the caves walls were hard to make out, giving an ethereal quality to the Geofront.

Upon reaching the bottom, Misato rolled the car off onto the platform and parked. The group disembarked, then following her into one of the buildings at the bottom. Once inside, Shinji pre-empted Misato by handing her a map pulled from a holder on the wall. Muttering something about 'too smart for their own good,' Misato led them down to the cages. There, they saw several techs, along with Ritsuko, waving various sensors over Lagann, which was sitting within one of the empty cages, dwarfed by the enormous space meant to hold a 200 foot tall Evangelion, not a mecha less than 6 feet tall.

Misato swiftly walked over to them, forcing Simon to skip once or twice to keep up. Once they were closer, Misato inquired, "So, what've y'all got so far?"

"Well, the mech doesn't appear to have any power source, which is probably why it won't turn on. I'm surprised it ever worked at all, since there doesn't appear to be any means of supplying external power either," Ritsuko replied.

"Hmm. Then how _did_ it work?"

"Well, I'm guessing it has some means of passive energy collection that we haven't managed to identify yet. The laws of physics may be different in… you know" Ritsuko trailed off, glancing meaningfully back at the techs, then at Simon, Yoko and Kamina, "and this 'Lagann' must have had enough to run for a minute or so on residual power after ending up here. We'll keep trying, but unless something changes Lagann is just a chunk of metal for now."

While they talked, Kamina sauntered over to where a sword and gun were leaned against the wall. He grabbed the gun and threw it butt first to Yoko, shouting to grab her attention, before spinning the sword over his arm and onto the back of his neck, where he slung his arms over it.

"Hey, careful with that, you dolt! It could go off, or worse, get damaged if you throw it around like that," Yoko shouted back.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah."

Noticing this going on, Misato finished her conversation with Ritsuko, then strolled over to them, "Yoko's right, Kamina. Guns are not toys. Have you ever even used a gun before? We can teach you some gun safety and maybe even teach you how to use one."

"Hey, don't look down on me! Who the hell do you think I am?"

"_I'll take that as a no_," Misato said under her breath, before continuing, "Alrighty then, let's hit the range then. Shinji, be a dear and go with Ritsuko please, we need to get you fitted for a plugsuit, that's one of the main reasons we came here after all."

"Okay," Shinji sighed, watching his new friends walk away.

…

Reaching the gun range, Misato checked out a handgun, led Kamina over to a booth, and handed the gun over to him, "Alright big shot, show me what you know."

Kamina promptly picked the gun up, holding it backwards, with the barrel facing towards him from under his fist, "Okay, now what?"

Misato snatched the gun away from Kamina so quickly it seemed simply appear in her hand. "Well, first off, try not killing yourself! You've got the business end pointed towards you. Seriously, if you don't know something, _ask." _Misato was dead serious now. "You could have hurt or killed yourself playing around with a gun if I hadn't given you an unloaded gun."

Misato demonstrated how to properly hold it, how the safety works, and so on. Next she went to get some ammunition for the gun, stopping in front of Yoko and Simon, who were standing around, "Would y'all like me to check out a couple guns for you? I know you already have that rifle, Yoko, but I bet you don't have much ammo here, do you?"

"Umm, I don't know how to use a gun either, Misato," Simon stated.

"Don't worry, I can teach you as well. Yoko, can I trust you to keep an eye on Kamina?"

"I guess so."

Misato obtained a pair of rifles and some ammunition, handing one rifle and most of the ammo to Yoko, and taking Simon with the other rifle and the rest to a different booth. As Misato began instructing Simon, Yoko began making single, precise shots at one of the targets downrange. Everyone cringed as they heard a burst of louder gunfire, everyone turning to see Kamina standing, pistol extended, a waft of smoke coming from the end of the barrel, having just fired off a full magazine in a matter of seconds.

Yoko sighed, and hit the buttons to retrieve both of their targets. Putting them side by side, she pointed out the difference to Kamina, "See here? I fired less shots than you, but I hit the target every time, and hit closer to the center of the target, though some of that is from using a rifle. Meanwhile, you didn't even bother to aim, and let the kick drag your gun all over, and missed most of you shots, and most of the ones that hit weren't anywhere near the center."

After sending out a new pair of targets, she grabbed Kamina's wrists from behind. Kamina froze for a moment as her chest pressed into his back, then relaxed and let her help him aim as he fired off several more shots at a much slower rate than he had before. After going through another magazine, Yoko pulled the second target back in.

"See? You actually hit most of the shots this time. I think you might actually have some talent at this. Usually people new to guns can't hit crap with a handgun without a lot of practice. Keep it up."

After half an hour or so, Misato called them in. "Well, this has been fun, but we've got some other things we need to get done while we're here today. Turn in your guns and come with me."

They trooped over to the locker rooms, meeting Shinji there. Shinji was wearing a skin-tight blue, white and black one-piece suit that covered his entire body from the neck down.

Misato said, "Good, you're done already. Change back into your normal clothes, then we need to go get all four of you IDs."

"Alright. Ritsuko said already having my measurements made it a lot easier to get it ready," Shinji said before retreating back into the locker room, emerging a minute later wearing his normal attire.

Following Misato, they reached an office containing several printers and other machines. Misato asked the officer inside, "Got those packets I ordered printed yet?"

"In the out basket by the door. Sorry, I'm a little busy right now."

"No problem, thanks for putting these together for me," Misato said, grabbing a few manila folders from the indicated basket. She pulled the contents out of one of them, smiled, and put it back in. "Peeerfect."

Misato stopped at a bench in front of a set of vending machines, then laid the packets out next to her on the bench. "Okay, I've made personnel files for the three of you." She waved to everyone else but Shinji. "Since we don't want it widely known that y'all are from another world, we've created some backstory. Over the next couple of days you'll need to familiarize yourselves with them so you can fit in better. First off, though, is names. Since Kamina and Simon here don't actually have last names, we had to come up with those for you as well. Since Yoko has her village name as her last name, we just did the same for you two. You're know Kamina Giha and Simon Giha. I've also got ID cards for all four of you, you'll need these whenever you come to NERV, so don't lose them."

With this, she handed out the ID cards, and they headed back towards the car park. Driving back from the Geofront, the setting sun lit the inside of the car with a rich orange and pink glow. Kamina and Simon were floored.

"Woa, the sky is on fire out there," Kamina exclaimed, "And the sun is huge! Is it getting closer to us?"  
"B-bro, I think it was like this last night when we first reached the surface. Maybe it does this every day?"

"I keep forgetting you two are new to the surface. Yeah, this happens pretty much every day. It's caused by all sorts of fun atmospheric effects when the sun gets toward the horizon. I can't really describe it that well. It is really pretty, though, isn't it?" Misato looked at the sunset as well, seeming to see it again for the first time.

"Misato! Look out," Shinji yelled from the back of the SUV. Misato looked back at the road, then swerved to avoid an oncoming car. "Can you please keep your eyes on the road?"

Reaching the apartment safely, Misato motioned for the boys to follow her and Yoko into their apartment. Once they had all trooped in, Misato turned to face them. "In a few days we're going to be putting y'all into school. Since Simon and Yoko are already Shinji's age, we're just going to put you all in the same class. The issue comes from the fact that neither of you," she said, pointing at Kamina and Simon in turn, "can read, which will be rather noticeable. Not knowing your history or other subjects can slide, but not being able to read will raise far too many questions. Soooo," she continues, rubbing her hands together, "we're going to teach you how to read! Luckily, Yoko and Shinji _can_ read, and they can help me make this somewhat easier."

Pulling a whiteboard out of a packed closet, they began.

…

Several hours later, Misato dropped into a chair. "Alrighty, that's enough for one night. Let's have dinner and split for the night. Shinji?"

"Yes, Misato." Shinji walked over to the fridge, opened it, and promptly cringed. "We didn't get any groceries while we were out."

"You should have reminded me," Misato said, "I guess you'll have to put up with instant food for a while longer. Not like anyone else here is complaining about it."

"Sorry. I guess I'll start heating some food up, then."

As they settled in to eat, Misato faced Yoko. "You know, you did a pretty good job helping me teach today. Thanks for the help."

Yoko shrugged. "I had fun. Glad I could help."

Kamina turned one of the empty food packages over, staring blankly at the writing on the labels. "Uhg, my head hurts after all this learnin'."

Turning to him and Simon, Misato said, "well, I think you both made some good progress tonight. I think Simon especially is a natural learner. But yeah, we're rushing into this, since we need to get you two reading at a decent level within a week or two. I'm not surprised you feel a bit worn out."

…

Over the few days, the two's reading skills improved vastly, enough that Misato also had them learn some basic history and science to prepare for their beginning school at the beginning of the next week. On Saturday night Misato pronounced, "Alright, I think y'all are as good as your going to get without actually going to school. Tomorrow, we celebrate. Shinji can finally show us his cooking skills."

The cheers of the other three teens, who had already started to tire of the novelty of microwave dinners, drowned out what little protest Shinji tried to make.

The next day, Shinji was accompanied by Simon as he goes to the store to get the supplies they need for the dinner Shinji planned to make. Shinji was listening to his MP3 player as they walked.

"What is that you've got in your ears, by the way? I've seen you with that several times."

"Oh, sorry," Shinji said, taking the earbuds out, "This is an MP3 player. I listen to music on it sometimes."

"So it holds recorded music like books hold recorded words?"

"More or less. Here, you can listen to one of the ear-pieces," Shinji replied, handing on of them to Simon, and putting the other back in his ear.

"Woa! There's a lot more to this music than anything back home. There's all sorts of instruments I don't recognize."

"Well, I'm guessing you don't have the materials to make much other than drums and some horns, right?"

"I think there are a couple harps made from bone and gut, but that's about it."

"Right. There are tons of instruments here, and a lot of them use electricity to make tones, not just strings, wind and stuff. Maybe I can show you some pictures if you remind me later."

Reaching the store, they quickly found the ingredients they needed, paid with the money Misato had given them, then returned to the apartment, splitting the groceries between them. Stopping in the girls apartment to grab some dishes and utensils, they went on to their own, and Shinji began preparing the food. As soon as he began chopping, Kamina sauntered in, saying, "Something smells good. How long 'till the food's done?"

"I just started, so it'll be a while. If you two help out we can get done faster, though."

"Alright! Whaddaya want me to do?"

Setting aside some vegetables and a cutting board, Shinji said, "Can you chop these up?"

_Shing! _

"No! Not with your sword. Use this," Shinji said hastily, handing Kamina a knife.

Shortly, even more smells started to fill the air, along with the sizzle of the pans the food was cooking in. Obviously, these wafted through the walls, because Yoko and Misato arrived shortly after.

"Dinner'll be ready in a few minutes," Shinji announced.

"Finally! I'm starving over here," Kamina shouted from the other room, where he'd wandered to after completing all he could do to prepare the meal.

The preparations were quickly completed, plates were served, and everyone sat around the table. "Dig in!" Misato ordered, and so they did.

Seemingly mere seconds later, Kamina presented a clean plate. "More!"

"Wow, you really are a bottomless pit," Misato said, "not that I can blame you tonight; Shinji here really is a good cook. In fact, I think that, effective immediately, Shinji is our designated cook!"

"Agreed!" Chorused Simon, Yoko, and loudest of all, Kamina.

Shinji tried to protest, but Misato countered with, "We need to officially divide up the chores anyway, and this way you'll be exempt from most of the other jobs. How's that for a deal?"

After that, Shinji acquiesced. The chores were 'fairly' divided up amongst the other four by rock-paper-scissors, after which Misato declared it bed-time, "Big day tomorrow and all! Y'all want to be well rested for your first day of school, right?"

…

The next morning, the alarms that Misato had distributed managed to wake everyone up at nearly the same time. Collecting in Misato's apartment, they went over the plans for the day. Breakfast consisted of instant meals yet again since Shinji's shopping expedition the day before had only gotten enough ingredients for dinner, which left everyone but Misato disappointed after the night before. Promising to take them out to buy more groceries that afternoon, Misato handed out the school uniforms.

"What is this lame crap?" Kamina turned his uniform over in his hands. "Shinji can pull this off with his jacket, but what are Simon and I supposed to do?"

"You'll just have to suck it up. Shinji isn't going to be wearing his jacket anyway, that would violate the dress code as well. Don't worry too much about it, everyone has to wear the same stuff."

After Kamina begrudgingly put on the uniform, they walked out into the cool morning air. They arrived to class early, shortly before the other students began filing in, giving some looks (and second looks for Yoko) to the unfamiliar faces standing in the front of the room.

The teacher finally arrived and announced that four new students would be transferring in. Luckily, with the recent angel attack, several families had evacuated, so there were plenty of seats. The teacher allowed each of the four a moment to introduce themselves.

"I'm Kamina, the badass leader of Team Gurren, and this here is my bro, Simon!" Kamina announced, nearly bowling Simon over with a slap on the back.

Yoko smacked Kamina on the back of the head, whispering harshly, "Low profile, remember?" before making her own, more sedate, "I'm Yoko Littner, pleased to meet you all."

Shinji stuttered through his introduction and, after some prodding, Simon did as well. The rest of the class chorused words of welcome, and the new students took their seats. The teacher then announced, "In addition, please welcome back Toji Suzuhara, who's been out for a family emergency the last few days," indicating a tall young man at one of the desks. The teacher began class, teaching something that most of the class promptly tuned out.

Shinji took the opportunity to scan around the room, and stopped when he saw a certain blue-haired girl, still covered in bandages, seated next to the window, "Rei?"

"Oho, you know her already?" Kamina asked knowingly, stretching hugely in his seat.

"N-not like that. I only met here once, o-or twice. My father was going to make her pilot the Evangelion."

"Alright, the cute surface chick is all yours, then."

Shinji cried out in protest, causing the class representative, Hikari Horaki, turned and shushed at them. Soon after, the first period ended. The four new students were called down to the main office, where they were each issued a laptop. Luckily, Simon and Kamina had already used Misato's computer a couple of times, preventing awkward questions. They returned to class just in time for the next period to begin. Shinji tried to find Rei during lunch, but she disappeared and he spent the lunch with his roommates. The rest of the day passed uneventfully, until the last period of the day.

Kamina, growing bored, loudly asked, "Hey! Aren't there any useful classes here, like on combat or piloting?"

The teacher droned on, oblivious, but the rest of the class gasped and turned toward him. Hikari tried to silence him, but the rest of the class paid her no mind. The clamoring class surrounded Kamina, asking if he was the pilot of the giant robot that had fought the angel a few days ago.

"No, no, no. That wasn't me; that was my bro Shinji here," he said, grabbing Shinji out of his chair and hauling him into the middle of the group. There were more gasps. Questions began coming in fast and furious and Shinji was barely to decipher any of them, and barely got a word in edge-wise even, and so managed to only reveal a little information. Luckily, the bell rang just then. The students desire to get out of school overrode their desire to interrogate Shinji, and the crowd dispersed.

As the four of them walked out the door after the main rush, they were confronted by the teen the teacher had identified as Toji. Without saying a word, he stepped up and threw a fist at Shinji's face. Shinji closed his eyes, anticipating a hit…which never came. Opening his eyes again, he saw Toji's fist caught in the palm of Kamina's hand. Kamina spoke, "Now, what did yah go and do _that_ for?"

Another boy came up behind Toji and answered, "You'll have to excuse him, his sister got hurt in the fight with the angel, so he's kinda pissed at the pilot for not doing a better job."

"Right, now get out of my way so I can hit him for real," Toji growled

"I'm sorry, I can't do that. You see, I was there when it all went down, and I was in the robot that fell on your sister, not Shinji here. If you wanna take a swing, hit me instead."

"Bu…wha…I thought Shinji was the pilot of the Eva? What were you doing…?"

"That's classified," Yoko broke in, "But Kamina is right, Shinji was not responsible for your sisters injuries."

"Alright then, I just gotta hit _somebody_!" Toji exclaimed, then took another swing, this time at Kamina, who stood straight, arms crossed, eyes open, with a grin on his face.

The punch connected with a loud retort, and Kamina swayed back before recovering without taking a step. "Wow, you've got a good arm on you."

Before Toji could continue, Rei came around the corner, speaking for the first time, "There is an emergency. I will report in first," before turning and hustling away. As she turned the corner, alarms began blaring, then a voice boomed out over a multitude of PA systems, issuing orders for non-combat personnel to report to their shelters.

Yoko quickly grabbed Kamina and Simon, shouting back to Shinji over Kamina's protests, "You get going, I'll make sure these two, and this one in particular," holding up Kamina's arm, "get to the shelter."

As they headed toward the shelter, the ground shook, and the sky-scrapers began sinking into the ground. "Aww, even the buildings are retreating around here. La-ame," groaned Kamina.

…

Shinji arrived at NERV, and was quickly escorted to the locker rooms. After putting his plugsuit on, he was hustled down to the Eva cages. In short order, he was inserted into the plug and the plug was inserted into Unit 01. Just before the catapult launched, a crane lowered a massive rifle into his hands.

"When you reach the surface, just aim for the center of the target and pull the trigger," Ritsuko instructed him.

The Eva arrived on the surface in a protected exit, with the opening facing away from the Angel, according to Shinji's HUD map. Shinji tried to jump out of cover and attack, but he froze at the last minute, legs locking. He paused, then took a deep breath of coppery LCL.

_I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away, _the mantra repeated in his head as he steeled himself to turn the corner and fire at the Angel. With a frantic jerk he rolled around the right corner of the lift exit. Shinji pointed the rifle at the beast and clamped down on the trigger, raining fire and lead on the Angel for several seconds.

He stopped, looking to see a huge cloud of smoke obscuring his sight of the angel, ears ringing from the noise. Looking down, he could see dozens of spent shell casings sticking out of the ground, their huge size creating small craters where they fell. Misato was yelling at him for blocking his own view, when suddenly a bright lash of energy sprung from the cloud, narrowly missing the Eva but severing most of the barrel of the rifle.

Misato informed him that a new rifle was being sent up, but Shinji wasn't paying attention. He watched in terror as the Angel rose from the cloud of smoke, giving him his first good look at it. It was a huge, long red cylinder, with a slightly lighter colored head, vaguely heart-shaped. Several black legs projected from the body near the joint with the head, clustered around another bright red sphere, the 'core' of the Angel. Two larger red limbs held the two lashes, one of which had just attacked him. Before he could respond to Misato, the Angel swung with the light whips again, forcing Shinji to retreat.

Shinji frantically dodged. Every time he avoided an attack, it seemed another was already coming towards him. The ground shook every time he landed after a dodge. The Angel's flailing attacks cut many buildings down, filling the air with the dust of shattered concrete and smoke from the inflamed contents of the buildings.

Shinji's luck ran out when he tripped over the shortened remains of a building felled by an earlier attack. Still scrambling to his feet, he was unable to dodge as the Angel grasped him with both of its tentacles. With an arm-wrenching jerk, the monster flung Unit 01 through the air, sending him tumbling end over end.

…

The three teens reached the shelter just as the buildings finished retreating below ground. Within minutes, Kamina was complaining loudly about how boring it was here. Seeing Toji and his friend (who introduced himself as Kensuke Aida) watching a news report on Kensuke's camera, Kamina sauntered over to peek in as well. Upon seeing that there was no video, he turned and walked back to Simon. "Come on, up an' attem. We need to go somewhere private." Kamina grabbed his arm and started dragging him to his feet and toward the exit, when were confronted by Yoko and Hikari.

"Where do you think you're going?" they said in unison.

"Ahh…Umm," Kamina tried to come up with a response.

"We…We're going to the bathroom," Simon came up with. The girls looked suspicious but let them pass.

Once they were out in the hall, Kamina took charge again, "Thanks for the save, bro. I should have come up with a story before we busted out of here."

"Where are we going, anyway?" Simon asked.

"Isn't it obvious? We're going up to the surface to watch the fight. Shinji needs our support!"

"Umm…"

"No time for that, let's _go_," Kamina said, dragging Simon along to the surface.

They reached the surface near a hill. Climbing to the top, they arrived just as the Eva reached the surface. Kamina whooped as Shinji filled the air with fire and smoke, then cringed as the Angel counterattacked. As Unit 01 began retreating, Kamina moaned, "Man…He's getting his ass kicked. Too bad Lagann won't turn on or you could go out and help him."

"Uh…I'm not sure I'd be much help. I'm not very good, and Lagann is so small."

"Heh. Don't worry about that. It's not about the size of the man in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the man that matters most!"

As he was saying this, the Eva was hurled into the air by the Angel, and Simon cried out as it flew straight towards them. Kamina turned, and seeing it, just grinned and folded his arms in front of him. Simon cried, "What are you doing? Get away from there!"

"It's too late to run, it'll either hit us or it won't. If I'm gonna buy it, I wanna do it in a looking cool, not cowering in fear."

Simon stopped as well, and turned to face the incoming figure. The Eva crashed to the ground in a heap, the shock bowling Simon over and causing even Kamina to take a step to maintain his balance. When the dirt thrown into the air by the impact settled, Simon and Kamina found themselves between the splayed fingers of Unit 01.

…

As Shinji flew through the air, he heard an alarm blare and a count-down appear in the corner of his screen. His power cable must have been severed. As he fell, he was shocked to see Simon and Kamina standing on the hill he was falling towards. He desperately attempted to alter course, but with nothing to push against could only watch helplessly as he plummeted towards his friends. Miraculously, he barely missed them, but he had no time to be relieved as the Angel was hot on his heels.

Turning, he grasped the tentacles as they swung down, determined to protect his friends despite the burning in his hands. Unfortunately, grappling with the angel left him no way of attacking the Angel.

The NERV bridge crew noticed the dilemma, and Misato came to a snap decision. "Shinji! Eject the entry plug and get those two inside it, then retreat and regroup; you don't have the power reserves to continue the fight." Shinji could hear some arguing on the bridge, but Misato did not retract her order.

The Eva continued to hold the Angel off on its own as the entry plug was partially ejected. Shinji opened the hatch from the inside, then shouted, "Get in," to the two below. They quickly complied, though they paused as they entered the LCL inside the plug.

Misato spoke tersely over the comm, "we don't have time for this! You can breathe it just fine, now _get in_!"

Alarms blared on the NERV bridge as the interference of the two foreign minds in the plug scewed their brain monitors, but no ill effects were apparent as Shinji finally managed to hurl the creature away from them, having re-assumed control of the Eva.

Misato commed in, "good, now retreat to the nearest point on your map so we can get you a new power cable."

Shinji stood still for a moment, obviously in pain from the feedback of holding off the light whips. Then, he began muttering something. Before Misato could repeat her order, Kamina slapped him on the shoulder, saying, "Alright, now let's blow this thing and go home! The three of us together are more than a match for one little beast."

Shinji closed his eyes for a moment, taking another deep breath of LCL. As he exhaled, a few bubbles escaping into the plug, he opened his eyes, then drew his Progressive Knife from his left shoulder pylon.

Misato shouted, "Shinji! Retreat as ordered. You do _not_ have enough power remaining to engage the target.

Instead, Unit 01 squatted momentarily before breaking into a sprint, flinging whole trees and huge sprays of dirt flying with the impact of its feet. As the Eva neared the Angel, the three teens inside it screamed in unison and leapt into the air.

The Angel lashed out with both of its energy whips, aiming to pierce the Evangelion's torso. The mecha parried across with its left arm, grabbing both lashes in its hand and rotating its wrist to wrap them around it. The beams burned the armor off of Unit 01's arms, and the pilots grunted in pain again, but they continued towards the Angel, then yanked on the whips, causing the Angel to hurtle up towards them as they fell the remaining distance to the ground.

The two behemoths clashed in midair, and the Angel let of a piercing wail. As they collided, Unit 01 put its entire gargantuan weight behind a thrust with the Prog Knife in its right hand, burying it hilt deep in the core. The two colossi crashed into the ground, with the Eva still on top. The force of the impact caused the few nearby buildings that hadn't been demolished in the earlier skirmish to collapse, and Unit 01 again put most of its weight into the Prog Knife. With that, the red orb in the Angels chest cracked, white lines like inverted veins covering the surface. The Angel keened again, then fell silent, as the Eva twisted the knife wedged into its core, shattering the sphere into hundreds of pieces.

The Angels beam arms went dark and limp, falling from the grasp of the giant. Mere moments later, the screens inside Unit 01 went dark as the countdown reached zero.

…

Authors Note: I will be using "y'all" throughout here. This is not necessarily meant to indicate an accent, it is simply a way to denote the plural of "you," since the geniuses in charge of the English language don't have an official one (unless you'd rather me use "thou," which is deprecated).

Also, I hope it's clear who's talking in the segments were I don't provide a name each time; trying to come up with original ways to say "he said, she said" for that many lines is impossible when nothing else is really happening. If it's confusing, PM me and I'll try and add some more cues.

I don't know if Goodwill exists in Japan, and I really don't care. I don't think that kind of accuracy is important to the story I'm trying to tell, so I haven't done any research for it. So don't be surprised if Tokyo-3 seems a lot like the good ol' US of A. Also, god I wish real Goodwill's had these kinds of awesome clothes. This one must be where they send all the cool stuff. This also lets me give Simon his jacket is something other than a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment were Ron slaps it on him (I mean seriously, I didn't even notice until I went back and skimmed through the episode when or where Simon got it).

I have no clue if you can teach a young adult to read in a couple of weeks. I need to teach them to read before I can put them in school, though, and I can't simply timeskip months, since the Angels aren't just gonna wait simply on account of crossover.

Another thing, please remember that I've skipped some content from the beginning (for now), so some things may be introduced as though you already know them (like Rei), because they will be introduced, that part just hasn't been written yet.

Rei is going to speak without conjugation for now as a way to help denote her monotone/whatever speech pattern, even though she doesn't do that in the show.

Sorry if this chapter seems a little slow or something.

Dear god this authors note is long.


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